"I killed… a woman."
Shiro's eyes widen after his horns had melted. He watches the beast that was once a female student with a life melt away into ashes.
"Did I really have to kill her? even if she had mutated into a beast?"
He wonders, asking himself. Shiro feels both regret, but is proud of what he has just done; he has just killed a beast, a threat to humanity, but also killed something that was once a human with a life.
He stares at the ashes of the beast, wondering what he should even feel.
…
Back outside the school, Bunnosuke is with the female students whom he had evacuated from the beast attack.
BUNNOSUKE : "IS ANYONE HURT?!"
- He yelled at the crowd of students.
The students stayed silent; some responded by shaking their heads.
BUNNOSUKE :Sighs "I'll take that as a no, then."
- He spoke while looking down.
He looks over at Chizu, who was sitting on a nearby tree by the outside school walls, before he approaches her.
BUNNOSUKE : "Are you okay?"
- He said as he kneeled in front of her, to get a closer look at whether she was hurt.
CHIZU : "I- I'm okay.."
- She said with fear and shyness in her voice.
BUNNOSUKE : "Everything will be okay, alright? My co-worker is fighting off the beast. You'll all be safe."
- He looks at her with calming eyes, trying to reassure her that everything will be alright before he wraps his arms around her, giving her a reassuring hug.
Before then, Shiro is seen walking out of the school gates, completely unharmed but covered in blood. He had a devastated look on his face, as if he had just suffered a loss.
Bunnosuke sees this as he runs over towards him, ending the hug he was giving to Chizu.
BUNNOSUKE : "Is it over?!"
- He exclaimed.
-Shiro's eyes look at him, his head faced down with disappointment and devastation.
SHIRO : "I killed a woman."
- Bunnosuke's eyes widen.
BUNNOSUKE : "HA…?! WAS THERE ANYONE LEFT IN THE BUILDING?! DID SHE GET CAUGHT IN YOUR ATTACK?!"
- He screams at Shiro while his hands are shaking Shiro on his shoulders.
SHIRO : "What…? No! I mean… I killed the beast."
BUNNOSUKE : "Oh.."
- Bunnosuke relaxes. He takes a deep breath before speaking again.
BUNNOSUKE : "I thought you killed a woman by accident."
BUNNOSUKE : "So.. it's over now?"
SHIRO : "Yeah, it's over."
- He said with devastation and a tired voice
Bunnosuke turns to the crowd of female students before yelling.
BUNNOSUKE : "EVERYONE! IT'S OVER! THERE'S NO NEED TO BE SCARED ANYMORE! EVERYONE IS SAFE NOW!"
Shiro still looks devastated at his actions; he stares blankly at the ground, asking himself if what he has done was right or wrong.
"I killed a woman, but she was a beast who was gonna end the lives of others."
"Did I do the right thing, Sheena..?"
Guilt.
The heavy feeling in one's chest, a quiet or sometimes loud ache that would haunt a person's gut, wondering if they should have done things differently.
…
…
…
Harmony Plaza, 1:04 PM. Amuro and Yuzuma are on the wide road walk, outside the Community Center by the intersection. Cars drive by them as they observe the area. The two were just standing, Amuro with a blank stare on his face, while Yuzuma was looking around.
YUZUMA : "Do you think we can trust that guy?"
- He asks, looking at Amuro.
AMURO : "Who?"
- He questioned, while still having a blank and calm stare on his face.
YUZUMA : "The Human-Beast…"
- He looks down at Amuro, as he is slightly taller than him.
YUZUMA : "Ms. Yoriha seems to take a liking towards him."
- He adds.
AMURO : "Hm."
AMURO : "It wouldn't matter if we can trust them or not, as long as they're put to good use within the organization."
- Yuzuma looks at Amuro with skeptical eyes.
YUZUMA : "You really don't care about anything else other than knowing if they can fight alongside you, don't you?"
- Amuro doesn't reply; he keeps staring at the road with a blank face.
- Yuzuma looks at Amuro, in a skeptical face, before he speaks.
YUZUMA : "I'll get myself a drink, call me if you spot anything."
Yuzuma walks off, he crosses the street where there was a local 7-11 Convenient store with a vending machine on the side of the building.
He inserts a coin in the vending machine and clicks the Pepsi button.The soda drops into the pick-up bin at the bottom of the vending machine. He takes the Pepsi and pops it open as he begins to chug it down.
Suddenly, he notices Amuro approaching the vending machine beside him. Amuro takes out a soda from the vending machine and begins to drink it.
AMURO : "I got thirsty."
- He spoke.
YUZUMA : "We really had to work on the spot where it's burning hot."
- He said before taking a sip of his soda.
AMURO : "It's perfect."
YUZUMA : "Guess you can say that, beasts won't emerge at this temp."
- Amuro gave a reassuring look at Yuzuma while he took a sip of his soda.
AMURO : "About your question earlier…"
- Yuzuma looks at Amuro, raising his brows.
AMURO : "Judging from a report, he had his girlfriend killed by a beast only a few days ago in Katori."
- Yuzuma's eyes widen slightly.
AMURO : "He probably moved to Chiba to find a new place that can keep him distracted from his lover's death."
YUZUMA : "Tragic."
AMURO : "As for his beast-form, that's something this world has to answer for us."
YUZUMA : "I've only heard of such rumors, of some organization from a different country transplanting a beast's body parts into humans to give them the strength or some sort of boost in power."
- Amuro looks at Yuzuma while listening carefully before speaking.
AMURO : "I don't think he's a victim of this."
YUZUMA : "Maybe, knowing our organization itself investigated the death of his lover."
…
…
…
Back at Chiba Girls' High, Bunnosuke is currently working with Beast Safety Control's Cross Safety Team to help investigate and clean up the mess from the fight. The team was wearing a specialized suit for cleaning beast attacks and deaths.
Some Cross Safety Members were inspecting the female students to see if anyone was harmed or hurt, while others were cleaning the rubble and broken walls from the attack.
Shiro is sitting outside the school's entrance gate under a tree beside the school walls.
Bunnosuke and a familiar man walk out of the school campus.
(?) : "Is that all I should know?"
BUNNOSUKE : "Yeah, just some damage to the school, no harm."
(?) : "Great."
Shiro notices the two of them speaking as he looks up at the familiar man while he's still sitting down under a tree.
The man looks at Shiro with a smirk on his face and a sincere look. His eyes were covered by his fedora. Shiro wasn't able to tell if it was the same man he had met, but his body and voice sounded familiar.
The man walked away, getting into the backseat of a black vehicle as the car drove off, leaving the school.
Bunnosuke looks over at Shiro and asks.
BUNNOSUKE : "You resting up well?"
- Shiro looks up at Bunnosuke.
SHIRO : "I'm fine."
BUNNOSUKE : "Work is done for today, you should report back to Ms. Yoriha."
SHIRO : "Do I really have to be the one to do it? I did the fighting already."
BUNNOSUKE : "You're right… but I got to take Chizu home."
- Shiro looks behind Bunnosuke to see Chizu, who was waiting for Bunnosuke.
SHIRO:Sigh "You really had to reclaim your highschooler during a mission?"
BUNNOSUKE : "SHE'S 18! AND GRADUATING!"
- He yelled.- Shiro smirks.
SHIRO : "Fine, fine. I'll report back to Ms. Yoriha, go on a date with your girlfriend."
- Bunnosuke's face lit up.
BUNNOSUKE : "You're a lifesaver, I owe you a collection of photo cards of Yuko Araki!"
- He said before running off with Chizu.
Now it's just him, alone.
He gets up, still a bit devastated and filled with guilt from what just happened, but he chooses to keep moving by walking towards Beast Safety Control H.Q.
Shiro is walking by the side of the street by himself; it's already almost evening. He's quite exhausted from the fight earlier.
"I feel like my body's about to collapse at anytime now."
He squats onto the sidewalk, looks down at the floor, and his vision gets blurry; his head begins to hurt.
"Not this shit again."
He tries to get a hold of himself, trying to control the headache. His eyes were tired, he was losing his vision.
Suddenly, he falls over to the floor fully. Passing out and losing consciousness.
—Chapter End : Trust in a Beast